Ken Berwitz
Like it or not (and, believe me, I don\’t), Donald Trump ran away with the New Hampshire Republican primary. Jeff Jacoby, the Boston Globe\’s excellent “house conservative” columnist, lays it out just about perfectly:
This time around, the winner of New Hampshire\’s GOPpresidential primary is a vulgar and loudmouthed egomaniac, as ignorant ofpublic affairs as he is gifted at stoking anger and xenophobia.
Trump led every poll of New Hampshire Republican voterssince last summer, nearly all of them by double digits, so his first-placefinish on Tuesday, with 35 percent of the vote, came as no surprise. But it wasa grievous confirmation of how far the Party of Reagan has drifted from itsmoorings.
…New Hampshire voters have just given theirimprimatur to a Republican candidate who embodies a crude, unfiltered,uninformed solipsism – a demagogue far removed from everything thoughtful andhonorable in the Republican Party\’s traditions.
Love the way you say it, Jeff.
As for the rest:
-Ohio Governor John Kasich finished second, with 16% – ahead of Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, who are tightly bunched in third/fourth/fifth place. It remains to be seen whether Kasich can parlay this into a real surge. I hope he does.-Ted Cruz is at something of a crossroads here. If he is strong in the next two primaries (Nevada and South Carolina), he will probably stay in it to the end. If not, he will go the way of Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, both of whom moved strongly upward, only to move strongly downward shortly thereafter.-Marco Rubio did well to blame himself for New Hampshire\’s disappointing showing. By defining his loss as an anecdote, a one-time quirk, he gets something of a bye this time around. But it also makes a strong showing in the next primaries an imperative to “prove” New Hampshire was a one-time lapse, or he\’s probably through.-Jeb Bush did slightly better than bad…but is on life support. If, after his strong showings in the last two debates, this is where he lands, he – like Cruz and Rubio – absolutely has to be strong in Nevada and South Carolina.-Chris Christie, even after being endorsed by the Manchester Union-Leader, wound up in 6th place with just 8% of the vote. He\’s done.-Ditto Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, whose combined vote total was less than Christie\’s.-And Jim Gilmore is so far behind even the losing tier of candidates that he makes a fool of himself every day he does not drop out…..not that anyone notices one way or the other.
